who will man the international space station?

In March 2000, an international crew of three will begin living aboard the International Space Station, starting a permanent human presence aboard the outpost. This first crew is scheduled to spend five months aboard the Station. When they arrive, it will consist of three modules: the Russian Service Module, which will serve as living quarters and onboard control center for the early station; the U.S. funded and Russian-built Zarya, a module that provides supplementary power and propulsion functions; and the U.S. built Node 1, a connecting module that provides the attachment points for future U.S. segments.

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While the Space Station will be permanently crewed, the crews will rotate during crew exchange flights. As an incoming crew prepares to replace the outgoing crew there will be a "handover period." The current Space Station crew will communicate by telecon to the crew on Earth any situations not planned for during training, new techniques or any topic necessary for life aboard the Space Station. Once the new crew arrives on board the Space Station the outgoing crew will brief them on safety issues, vehicle changes and payload operations.

When it is fully assembled, the Space Station will house an international crew of up to seven for stays of between three and six months.

• Living on the Space Station
• Astronaut Training

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*Click on images for captions
Photo credits for all images: NASA.
Additional materials in this section courtesy of NASA and Boeing.